After our six week grand (bus) tour of tbe Balkans, we have undertaken a three week Ionian island hopping tour taking in Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos.
We arrived in Ioannina on a bus from Albania. Sheila and I enjoyed two very comfortable nights in Hotel Kentrikon in Ioannina including, what I can only describe as quirky eclectic breakfasts, which I enjoyed (pastries and pancakes) but Sheila didn’t. I like Ioannina. The streets are well maintained and clean. The town appears to be more affluent than many other parts of Greece. Arriving there from the Balkans was a shock to the system in that streetlife is orderly and things seems to work!
We took a pleasant two hour bus ride from Ioannina to Pescada on the banks of the Ioanian Sea. There, we met the Sea Gypsies, our friends Brian and Nev from Clacton.
Brian and Nev sail around the Ioanian islands during the summer in their yacht Poppet. A fairly idyllic way for men of a certain age to pass their summers. Anyway, they were kind enough to extend an invitation to us to stay a few days with them. We spent the first night moored at Pescada. The following morning after picking up Michelle, who had flown in from the UK, we sailed to Desimi Beach, a small bay on the east coast of the island of Lefkada near Nydri.
It was flat calm but Sheila somehow managed to get horribly seasick. To the extent that we were unable to stay aboard after the second night. They cruised round to Nydri where we disembarked and checked in to a hotel for a couple of nights.
From Nydri Sheila and I took a ferry to Fiscado on the northern most tip of Kefalonia. We spent the day on the beach waiting for the 5pm bus to the capital Argostoli. Fiscardo is a quaint little port catering for sailors and tourists. Well, I suppose most of the coastal communities on the Greek islands are just that.
The bus ride around the coast to Argostoli is wonderful with huge panoramic views of the sea cliffs, bays and beaches. We had booked six nights in an airbnb, Apartment Aggeliki. It was very comfortable with a first floor view over the international cruise ship port. We saw at least one or two huge cruise ships mooring there every morning during the time we stayed there. With hundreds, if not thousands of passengers disembarking every morning, what a great revenue stream it must be for the island economy and other cruise ship destinations in the Med.
We spent our six days relaxing and visiting the beaches close by. The highlight of our stay was seeing a pod of dolphins from the ferry, on the crossing to Kefalonia. Then, on the same day, when we got to Argostoli, we saw Sea Turtles in the harbour. Apparently, Kefalonia has one of the worlds largest concentrations of loggerhead sea turtles caretta caretta. They are attracted to the fishing boats in the harbour, when they dock with their catches every morning. Sheila and I were absolutely thrilled. What a day, seeing dolphins and sea turtles in their natural environment.
I am going be be a little controversial now. I haven’t been overly impressed with Greek beaches. I realise that there are spectactular beaches on most islands. However, the regular beaches near the busy tourist spots are overcrowded and in my view, inferior. I say this as someone who is not a beach lover but someone who has seen more than my fair share of beaches in different parts of the world.
Jackie and Anthony had invited us to spend a couple of days with them at their villa near Lourdada. They collected us and drove us to their spendid villa. We shared a couple of lovely days in their company before they flew back to the UK and we prepared to take a ferry from Pessada to Agios Nikolaos in the north of Zakynthos. Waiting for the ferry we booked in to the Karavados Beach Hotel. We liked it so much we resheduled our plan and booked in for a second night.
The ferry crossing to Zakynthos was just less than 2.5 hours and past without incident on what must have been the coolest evening we’ve had since we arrived in Greece on 4th July. Very agreeable. Both Sheila and I are weary with all this hot weather. We have experienced 2.5 months of temperatures of 30°+ now and the cooler autumn weather cannot come quickly enough for us both.
We had less than 24 hours in Agios Nikolaos. Our hotel was very tastefully built and decorated. Every room had its own outdoor space. The rooms were built as a series of single storey villas. Agios Nikolaos appeared to me to be the latest trendy location for the middle classes. All shabby chic and over priced. I hadn’t realised that both Kefalonia and Zakynthos are crowded with mainly British (well English) tourists. There is a smattering of other nationalities but a huge percentage is British.
Although the internet indicates that Agios Nikolaos has a regular bus service, it turns out, there are just two buses a week. We took a taxi to Elykes on the east coast to meet up with Sheila’s ex work colleague and good friend Brenda and her old college buddy Anna. We had booked in to the cheapest place we could find. You know before I say it that it was false economy. It was one of the worst rooms we have stayed in. That is some claim as I estimate we have stayed in nearly 100 different rooms in the past 4 months.
We mitigated our position by reducing the duration of our stay from 4 nights to 3. We enjoyed a great night out with Brenda, Anna and two of their friends Jane and Andrew who live close by after relocating to Zakynthos 13 years ago. Our night consisted of dinner at a traditional Greek restaurant (Albanian waiter) and the on to a Greek Taverna for what was advertised as a Jazz Night. As it turned out, it was a band playing Brasilian music with lots of drumming. It turned in to a late night fuelled by a little too much acolhol.
Sheila had a second night out with the girls in Zante town. She informs me that that was a much tamer affair than the previous evening.
This morning we said our goodbyes to Brenda and Anna and relocated to Zante ready to take a ferry to Kyllini on Peloponese we have bus tickets to Larissa on our way to endeavour to complete a two day climb of Mount Olympus. The highest mountain in Greece and home of the Greek gods.
I set out below a selection of random photos from the hundreds taken. They are not necessarily a representative sample as I’m having trouble uploading photos
Our adventure continues.
Wandering Boomers 